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The Birth of College Hockey in North Dakota

When you think college hockey in North Dakota, you think Grand Forks, right?

Not so fast my friend.

You might be surprised to learn that college hockey in North Dakota was first played in Fargo. NOT in Grand Forks.

In November of 1925, Thomas S. Smith, director of Military tactics at North Dakota Agricultural College – (what NDSU was called back then) planned to start a varsity hockey team. Smith, a former player himself had played professionally for the Portage Lake Michigan team of the International hockey league during its championship season of 1907. He also played for the Fort Snelling team when he was stationed there.

Smith had parts of Dacotah Athletic Field flooded to form rinks and the NDAC hockey team was born.

On December 26th 1925, and only after a few practices, Coach Smith and his team left on a road trip to Northern Michigan to play Calumet and an exhibition against his old Portage Lake team in Houghton. Then they heading to Minneapolis and played two games against the reigning Big Ten champion Minnesota Gophers and one game against St. Thomas.

While they were on that road trip, Emil Iverson, the coach of the University of Minnesota hockey team, proposed the forming of the Northern Intercollegiate Hockey Association. Smith’s Bison squad joined the league along with 15 other schools.

The University of North Dakota was also said to have been invited, but according to the Grand forks Herald on January 6, 1926, they had not yet formed a team. There were also concerns about whether outdoor hockey could be played in Grand Forks due to the cold, and at the time, building an “enclosed rink was out of the question.”

During the 1926-27 season the Bison hosted their first home game. St. Thomas made a visit to Fargo and played two games on the weekend of January 21st . The Bison won the first game 3-2. According to the Fargo Forum, it was the first intercollegiate hockey game played in North Dakota.

On February 12th of that same year, the Bison were scheduled to play their first game against the University of North Dakota, who now had a team. That game was scheduled to take place in Fargo at the NDAC rink, but it was cancelled because of the inability to schedule the second half of the home and home in Grand Forks. Rather than incur all the costs themselves, without getting a return trip to Grand Forks, NDAC officials cancelled the game in Fargo.

The two teams would finally meet up the next season. The first game was on February 22, 1928 in Grand Forks. The Bison came from behind to win 2-1 with the game winning goal scored by Ken McDowell. The second game was held on March 3, 1928 on the NDAC rink. The game ended in a scoreless tie. Wet and slushy ice conditions were blamed for the lack of scoring.

Following that 1927 – 28 season, Thomas S. Smith received orders to report to Infantry school in Columbus Georgia. J.A. “Pat” Purcell was then hired as the new head coach of the Bison hockey team. Purcell had excelled as a youth hockey star in Grand Forks and as an amateur in Winnipeg but was also the sports editor for the Fargo Forum at the time. According to a 2015 article on Purcell’s life, his 1929 Bison team won their first game 2-1 against Fort Snelling, and they never won again. Frustrated, he resigned 2 games into his second season.

According to the newspaper records available, in the 1930’s the Bison hockey team began playing a more amateur schedule against local teams as opposed to other colleges. Teams like the Detroit Lakes Blue Jays, the Moorhead Comets and Fargo High. After 1937, there are no more mentions of NDAC Bison hockey in North Dakota Newspapers until 1948. In later stories it's suggested that the reasons for the team's disappearance from the records was financial.

But in 1947 and 1948, the Bison Hockey team resurfaced, led by football star and hockey player Don Bredell. In 1948 the team (wearing old F-M Comets uniforms) played a 6 game road schedule winning 4 and losing 2. They beat Bemidji State Teachers college twice, as well as Jamestown and Concordia. One of their losses was to St. Cloud Teachers College 6-4 in (a non-sudden death) overtime. Their final game of the season was a 17-6 whooping by the University of North Dakota squad. According to Grand Forks Herald writer Brad Schlossman, “It stands, to this day, as the highest scoring game in UND hockey history”.

That 1948 season was the final season of hockey at NDAC as a varsity sport. According to Bredell, “interest died”.

In 1983 an NDSU club hockey team was formed by Fargo North Sigh School hockey coach Dave Morinville. Almost immediately there was talk of the sport moving to Varsity. That talk intensified after a 1987 weekend sweep of D1 Notre Dame at the Fargo Coliseum that was witnessed by nearly 5000 fans. The NDSU club team experienced much success in the 80’s winning multiple national championships.

When the Fargodome was being built in the early 1990’s there was even talk of the NDSU hockey team playing there, but Fargodome officials didn’t think that the busy hockey schedule would fit into their plans to use the building as “multi-purpose”.

In the late 90’s there were more talks of bringing varsity hockey back with a proposed arena, but Fargo citizens voted it down in April 2000. In 2001 Gene Taylor was hired as NDSU Athletic Director. Even though hockey was still on the table at the time of his hiring, Taylor’s focus became guiding all NDSU athletics to transition to Division 1. The costs involved with that move left little room for hockey - a notoriously expensive sport. In addition, during that same time period, the new Ralph Engelstad Arena opened in Grand Forks. In the words of Fargo Forum writer Jeff Kolpack, the arena was “So nice it may have priced NDSU’s hockey hopes out of business.”

Presently there is still a club hockey team at NDSU. They play most of their home games at Cullen Sports Arena in Moorhead, Minnesota.

SOURCES

1948 Bison Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947%E2%80%9348_North_Dakota_Agricultural_Bison_men%27s_ice_hockey_season

Pat Purcell

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-forum/168752003/

Kolpack quote

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-forum/168781653/

Gene Taylor

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-forum/168791144/

Arena 1999 – 2000 Entzion

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-forum/168780927/